Waiting For The Win
by Ankhutenshi
Summary: In which victory is questioned. Partial character study. Please RR.


**Waiting For The Win**

Yami carefully gathered his card from the field, turning them all right side up as he regarded his opponent across the table.

"Do you concede your loss ?" he asked.

Bakura had not moved since the end of the duel, chin still resting on the back of his hand, staring at the field with the concentration of a chess master planning a checkmate a dozen moves away. His Destiny Board -- the letters D, E, and A already in place -- occupied his back row, and Dark Necrophia had been judiciously guarding his Lifepoints in defense mode. It had been a well-timed draw that had given Yami the Mass Driver card, allowing a direct attack and thus securing his win before the last two letters could be added to the Board. Their graveyards stood almost as tall as their decks, evidence of the length of their match.

"Your loss ?" Yami prompted when the silence continued to stretch between them. There wasn't any question that he was the victor, but something intrinsic in him demanded that his opponents acknowledge it.

"Yes, Pharaoh," Bakura said finally, his tone long-suffering, as a child pestered by parents for chores. "You win."

Satisfied, Yami put his deck into his pocket. The gesture was largely symbolic; the dismissal of something (someone) no longer a threat. Winning put him in a good mood, and he noted, "One day you'll get tired of losing. You will not have my Puzzle."

He had stopped taking the Ring after the first few wins. No matter where he put it, the Ring would be gone by the following day, returned to Ryou through no action on the teen's part. So he let the wagers remain one-sided, even though he recognized it as extremely patronizing. If the thief cared, he didn't show it.

Apparently finished with whatever had so captivated his attention on the field, Bakura stood. Feeling the Horus Eye open on his forehead, Yami did the same.

"You'll be back," he said, his tone both annoyed and wry. He had not yet become so condescending as to let the other spirit off without any punishment at all. Attempted theft was still theft in Yami's eyes.

The blast of dark energy dissolved the thief's form like a powerful wind sweeping away granules of sand. The force also sent Bakura's cards fluttering off the table. Where they landed on the floor, they turned to smoke and disappeared, but Yami didn't notice.

--

A week passed before Yami became impatient with the wait. It wasn't that he had no one else to duel; indeed, both Kaiba and Jounouchi alone provided opportunity for countless rematches. It was simply that, as dangerous and irritating as Bakura was, he was still an excellent duelist, and Yami enjoyed a challenge.

Just as the thief had done, Yami had learned how to push Bakura's buttons, and usually a few provoking jibes within Ryou's earshot was enough to bring the other spirit out of lurking and guarantee Yami a few hours of entertainment.

He got his first chance when the group met up at the arcade. The atmosphere was perfect: competitive and fast-paced. But Bakura didn't rise to the bait... in fact, he ignored it completely, because Yami didn't hear a single thing from him the whole day.

He took out his annoyance over the matter by beating Anzu in DDR, until Yuugi pulled him off the machine and told him to stop, because Anzu looked so sad and embarrassed.

--

Another week passed without incident before Yami decided to force the thief's hand. He caught up with Ryou after school and demanded the Ring. The teen looked at him blankly, but turned over the Item.

Yami took it home, dropped it in a shoebox, and put it in the closet. He gave it 24 hours at most before Bakura would retaliate at having the Ring treated like an unwanted Christmas gift.

--

Three days later, Yami pulled the Ring out of the box with a mixture of surprise and exasperation. The metal wasn't cold... not in the way that the Items which did not house spirits were. Rather, is was a phantom chill, like a seat that had been vacated after being occupied for a long time.

--

"I want to speak with him," Yami demanded, cornering Ryou as the teen was about to enter the schoolyard.

"Yami Yuugi," the hikari started, but Yami cut him off before he could recite whatever poor excuse Bakura had forced him to memorize.

"Now."

"Then find him," Ryou sighed, "since this is your fault."

--

"Ra-dammit, Tomb Robber, you _always_ fail to get my Puzzle. Why are you being such a sore loser this time ?" Yami called loudly, stalking through the blackness of the Shadow Realm. He was irritated by the fact that he'd been reduced to fetching the thief, who was being a poor sport and was probably sulking somewhere this minute.

No answer greeted him, further straining his already short temper.

"Fine," he snapped, "stay here and hide with your tail between your legs."

--

Yami resolved not to dwell on Bakura, and instead focused on challenging Kaiba. He even went so far as to let the CEO denounce the Heart of the Cards without interruption, even as he watched Seto touch their magic to draw his beloved Blue Eyes White Dragons.

He apologized to Anzu for their previous encounter on the DDR machine, and applauded for her as she trounced every opponent she came up against one afternoon. He also got Yuugi to ask her out on a date, which left them both blushing but stammering agreement.

He made an effort to treat Ryou as though nothing had happened, but if the teen appreciated this courtesy, he didn't show it. Instead, he stayed in the background, and said nothing more than an apathetic "Thank you" when Yami handed him the Ring.

--

A month passed. Kaiba stopped accepting his challenges, determined to first find the perfect combination of cards using his computer simulations. Jounouchi was spending time with his sister, helping Shizuka develop her own dueling skills. Out of sheer boredom, he even played a few games of Dungeon Dice Monsters with Otogi, though that too quickly lost its appeal.

--

He went back to the scene of their last duel, where the table remained unchanged, as it would until it was willed away. Yami was surprised to see that Bakura's deck was still strewn across the table, for he had always known the thief to be fanatically possessive of things, his deck no exception.

_You'll be back_, Yami had said. Bakura always had a way of returning. It was as ingrained in him as winning was in Yami.

Yami had won. Bakura would return.

It was normally taboo -- at least, poor duelist etiquette -- to touch another's cards without permission, but Yami picked up the messy deck, reformed it neatly, and thumbed through it. He noted several additions which he would have to keep in mind.

The deck was not complete, however; only four of the five Destiny Board pieces were present, and several monsters that Yami remembered sending to the Graveyard were also missing. He vaguely remembered the cards scattering, but when he checked the ground around the table, he didn't find them.

He left the deck on the table and waited, sure that his trespass would produce a reaction within short order. He waited until Yuugi finally came seeking him, worried, and asked what he'd been doing for three days that he hadn't answered his aibou's calls.

--

Yami always won. Bakura always returned. It was a familiar routine that Yami had not stopped to consider for quite a while, trusting only in the habitual rhythm of it. One didn't seem complete without the other, and Yami realized that although he had beaten Bakura in the duel, he was still waiting for the win.

**Owari.**

14-01-05


End file.
